Monday, April 16, 2012

Unlike the Spent Fuel Pool of Reactor 4 which was nearly full with fuel assemblies, the SFP of Reactor 3 was only about 46% of the capacity (514 spent fuel assemblies, 52 new fuel assemblies in the pool that can hold 1220 fuel assemblies, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry document from March 2011).

Concerning the MOX fuel in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, the November 2011 report by the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) says (page 35):

"There are no mixed-oxide fuel assemblies in any of the spent fuel pools or in the dry cask storage facility."

19
comments:

Not sure where the "mox pool" nonsense started. The inventory of MOX in Japan is well documented. The one load of assemblies delivered to Daiichi were all installed in the core of 3 in 2010 and were in the core at the time of the accident. This is the set of assemblies delivered in 1999. The only set of MOX assemblies not used somewhere or returned to the manufacturer are those at Kashiwazaki. We have looked to see if they were ever moved or if they still reside in the pool at KK. So far we have found NO EVIDENCE that they have been moved and found accounting for them at KK as late as 2009. Not sure who started called the fuel pool the "MOX pool" but that is grossly inaccurate and not helping anything. There is no such thing as a MOX pool. But creating such an idea is a good way to jack up page views and stir up more panic.

Talk about a "MOX spent fuel pool" started with an April 15, 2012 report that Japan Times carried from Kyodo News. The headline: "Machine Fell Into MOX Spent-Fuel Pool: Tepco".

Of course, Reactor #3 runs on MOX fuel. However, if one reads the article closely, one finds there is no mention that there is any spent MOX fuel stored in the spent fuel pool at Reactor #3. In brief, the text of the article does not provide support for the headline.

--------------------------------------------------Laprimavera, I really should have said that chatter about MOX fuel in Reactor 3 SFP was recently "RE-started" following the Japan Times headline on April 15, 2012.

Thank you for taking the time to read my comments and give your feedback.

Reactor 3 doesn't run on MOX fuel. It had a few MOX assemblies in the core, but the reactor design isn't specifically for MOX fuel, nor was the majority of the fuel in #3 MOX fuel. MOX has become the latest boogeyman in the closet for people who are trying to make this whole drama as apocalyptic as possible. Its like Arnie Gundersen talking about a prompt-criticality blowing the contents of #3 sky high. All of a sudden, every conspiracy website was talking about "prompt criticality", which became the boogeyman du jour.

3 reactors melted down/through in the days following the earthquake.They have been continuously emitting radioactive nuclides into the air and water, and depositing them on the soil for over a year.No drama.Just the facts.

Actually the talk bout criticality began when the Jpanes authorities ordered TEPCO to prevent a "re-criticality" in spent Fuel Pool at Unit 4 (in Japanase apparently it was the "second occurrence" of criticality implying there had already been a criticality incident. Google translated it as TEPCO were ordered to prevent the "Second Coming" occurring in the Fuel Pool.

To anon at 2:40 pm, since you're playing the expert and setting the record straight around here, don't stop now. What do you mean reactor 3 "doesn't run on MOX fuel"? Perhaps you need to define "run". What kind of fuel is reactor 3 "specifically designed" for if not MOX? Do you mean it is only "specifically designed" to use a certain proportion of MOX? If so, how much? Can a reactor use some MOX without being "specifically designed" for that purpose? How many MOX fuel assemblies were in the core? "A few" is not very precise. What other kind of fuel was in there? And how much? "A majority" is also pretty sloppy accounting. While you're at it, take a look at the comment by anon at 9:11 am. Lots of questions need answering. Take your time.

@anon at 3:59PM, Reactor 3 is a light-water reactor, designed to run on the regular low-enriched uranium fuel. There were 32 MOX fuel assemblies in the reactor core when the accident happened, and the rest were the regular uranium fuel assemblies. The total number of fuel assemblies inside the Reactor 3 core was 548, which includes the 32 MOX fuel assemblies.

MOX fuel is used in light water reactors, without modification to the reactors.

To laprimavera, ya might wanna do something about the Gunder-phobia that's running amuck on your site. It's becoming a freaking joke in the online community. When did that shit start happening here anyway? You were an Arnie supporter back in the day. What's made you so bitter man? Maybe immersion therapy would help y'all get over it. OK, people, everybody has to mention A-R-N-I-E G-U-N-D-E-R-S-E-N at least once in every comment. Have a real good one.

Lighten up pal. Just saying exskf doesn't even sound like the same site what with the pie-throwing Gunder-phobia. Did the place change management and is somebody else writing under the moniker arevamirpal::laprimavera?

All these Anons writing short pieces are becoming destructively confusing. I am beginning to wonder if a restriction of no more than one Anon post per IP might help... or maybe one Anon post per top 3 octets. It might help stop the custard pie fights.

the whole issue is not about how much mox fuel was in fukushima at the time of blowing up. fact is that a lot of radioactivity has escaped and is polluting an ocean, the air and the soil. evidence of the fallout in higher or lower doses are found all over the world.... but

while a few smarties argue the hell about thing they forget that the news about the suffering of the people around Japan, the new reports about mutations of vegetation, the endless stories of children and adults with recurring nosebleeds in droves etc. just how bad it all was is in my amateur opinion only visible on the effects it has in the long run and i only know a little about half life and the types of radiation... i do not care... i care about the living things that suffer, die, wither etc.

could you stop being way too clever for your own good and start to understand that the disaster is far from over, it is ongoing with only very few and usually old news being released by officials and that we do not get to see the big picture of it's devastating effects until in a few years time.... in the mean time look at Chernobyl and what devastating health effects that had.... then compare the Geiger counter readings.

so now they try to find out what they already knew, that the debris and the crane fell onto the fuel in the spent fuel pools. big news? nope!

however put off you are by scientist speaking about the disaster, they are the ones who try to shed a little light on what went on as we can be sure of one thing, the officials will always lie because of financial implications and because of possible personal consequences when the whole story comes out.

so please could you spare a moment between mox and uranium and remember there are living, breathing human beings that get poisoned by more radio active isotopes than cesium, plutonium and iodine....

About my coverage of Japan Earthquake of March 11

I am Japanese, and I not only read Japanese news sources for information on earthquake and the Fukushima Nuke Plant but also watch press conferences via the Internet when I can and summarize my findings, adding my observations.

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Well, this was, until March 11, 2011. Now it is taken over by the events in Japan, first earthquake and tsunami but quickly by the nuke reactor accident. It continues to be a one-person (me) blog, and I haven't even managed to update the sidebars after 5 months... Thanks for coming, spread the word.------------------This is an aggregator site of blogs coming out of SKF (double-short financials ETF) message board at Yahoo.

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